Jerusalem's Arab population expanding

Tuesday, May 08, 2007 |
by Staff Writer

The Arab population in Jerusalem is increasing at double the rate of the capital's Jewish population, warned researchers in a survey published on Monday.

The troubling discrepancy has existed for the past decade, and if it continues, by 2035 there will be as many Arabs as Jews in Jerusalem, senior researcher Dr. Miya Hoshen of the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies told The Jerusalem Post .

Jerusalem currently has 720,000 residents, 66 percent of whom are Jews.

The primary threat to Jerusalem's Jewish majority is the mass migration of Jews from the capital to nearby suburbs over the past ten years.

Most cite better job opportunities and more affordable housing as the reasons for making the move.

Some city officials want to annex Jerusalem's larger suburbs in order to reverse the trend. Others have expressed support for ceding the eastern Arab-dominated half of Jerusalem to the Palestinian Authority as the only viable solution.

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